Objective To summarize the occurrence of missed diagnosis of periampullary diverticulum (PAD) with pancreatobiliary diseases and analyze its underlying reasons.Methods We conducted a retrospective analysis of 194 patients with PAD complicated with pancreatobiliary diseases from January 2006 to December 2011 in our hospital Results At the first onset of pancreatobiliary diseases,the diagnosis of PAD was made in 48 patients (correct diagnosis group) and missed in 146patients (missed diagnosis group),with a rate of missed diagnosis of 75.3%.At the second,third and fourth onsets of pancreatobiliary diseases in the missed diagnosis group patients,the rates of missed diagnosis were 37.7%,21.8%,and 0% respectively.There were no significant differences between the correct diagnosis group and the missed diagnosis group with respect to sex,age or the kinds of pancreatobiliary diseases (P>0.05).But there were significant differences in the two groups with respect to different medical groups,period of admission,the frequency of application of CT,magnetic resonance (MRI) and magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP),duodenal endoscopy/endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and upper gastrointestinal contrast radiography (P<0.05).The accuracy rates of CT,MRI,MRCP,upper gastrointestinal contrast radiography and duodenal endoscopy/ERCP for the diagnosis of PAD were 30.0%,31.5%,36.3%,64.5% and 100.0% respectively.At the first,second,third and fourth onset of pancreatobiliary diseases,the application rates of duodenal endoscopy/ERCP were 18.0%,33.6%,70.9% and 91.7%,respectively.Compared with the missed diagnosis group,recurrence rate of symptom were lower significantly in the diagnosis group 1,2,and 3 years post-treatmnet.Conclusions The missed diagnosis of PAD complicated with pancreatobiliary diseases is rather common,mainly due to insufficient understanding for PAD.As a result,for PAD patients with pancreatobiliary diseases,the correct diagnosis rates of CT,MRI,MRCP and upper gastrointestinal contrast are low and the use of duodenal endoscopy/ERCP is insufficient.

Key words:
Ampulla of vater; Diverticulum


The invention belongs to the technical field of the material science, in particular to a low-temperature sintering microwave dielectric ceramic material with a high Q value and a preparation method thereof. The low-temperature sintering microwave dielectric ceramic material with a high Q value has the raw material formula composition of Li2(Mg1-xZnx)Ti3O8 and a sintering assistant, wherein x is more than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to 1; and the sintering assistant accounts for 0.5-5wt% of Li2(Mg1-xZnx)Ti3O8 and is one or more of Li2O-B2O3-SiO2 glass powder, ZnO-B2O3-SiO2 glass powder, BaO-O-B2O3-SiO2 glass powder and CuO-Bi2O3-V2O5 sintering powder. The low-temperature sintering microwave dielectric ceramic material provided by the invention has the advantages of low cost, smalladded sintering dose, high quality factor Qf value, simple preparation technology, good reproducibility and great industrial application value.


3581Background: Vitamin D mainly exerts its inhibitory influence on the development of colon cancer by inhibiting the canonical Wnt signaling pathway, whereas its role in modulating the non-canonic...


The late eighties and early nineties in Germany were not only marked by the fall of the Wall and German unification, but also by the dramatisation of the political issue of asylum, resulting in outbreaks of xenophobic violence. In the context of the asylum debate of the early nineties, a number of punk bands produced songs between 1991 and 1994 which criticise the xenophobic climate created by the asylum debate and undermine an exculpatory official discourse about the violent attacks. The lyrics of these songs will be analysed as instances of counter-discourse emerging from a subcultural sphere that nurtures a critical distance from hegemonic public and political discourse, arguing that Critical Discourse Analysis should pay more attention to defiance of hegemonic discourse.


We recently identified a substantial population of galaxies at z > 2 with comparatively red rest-frame optical colors. These distant red galaxies (DRGs) are efficiently selected by the simple observed color criterion Js - Ks > 2.3. In this paper we present near-infrared spectroscopy with Keck NIRSPEC of six DRGs with previously measured redshifts 2.4 < z < 3.2, two of which were known to host an active nucleus. We detect continuum emission and emission lines of all observed galaxies. Equivalent widths of Hα in the nonactive galaxies are 20-30 Å, smaller than measured for Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) and nearby luminous infrared galaxies and comparable to normal nearby galaxies. The modest equivalent widths imply that the galaxies either have a decreasing star formation rate or are very dusty. Fitting both the photometry and the Hα lines, we find continuum extinction AV = 1-2 mag, ages 1-2.5 Gyr, star formation rates 200-400 M☉ yr-1, and stellar masses (1-5) × 1011 M☉ for models with constant star formation rates. Models with a declining star formation lead to significantly lower extinction, star formation rates, and ages but similar stellar masses. From [N II]/Hα ratios we infer that the metallicities are high, 1-1.5 times solar. For four galaxies we can determine line widths from the optical emission lines. The widths are high, ranging from 130 to 240 km s-1, and by combining data for LBGs and DRGs, we find significant correlations between line width and rest-frame U - V color and between line width and stellar mass. The latter correlation has a similar slope and offset as the "baryonic Tully-Fisher relation" for nearby galaxies. From the line widths and effective radii we infer dynamical masses and mass-to-light (M/L) ratios. The median dynamical mass is ~2 × 1011 M☉, supporting the high stellar masses inferred from the photometry. We find that the median M/LV ≈ 0.8(M/L)☉, a factor of ~5 higher than measured for LBGs. We infer from our small sample that DRGs are dustier, more metal-rich, and more massive and have higher ages than z ≈ 3 LBGs of the same rest-frame V-band luminosity. Although their volume density is still uncertain, their high M/L ratios imply that they contribute significantly to the stellar mass density at z ≈ 2.5. As their stellar masses are comparable to those of early-type galaxies, they may have already assembled most of their final mass.


Objective: To evaluate structural and functional cardiac changes in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis in relation to the severity of liver disease. Methods: Study included 80 patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis (LC) without history of cardiovascular and respiratory disease. ECG, echocardiography were performed. Plasma values of NT-proBNP were evaluated in 60 patients. Results: Left ventricular ejection fraction was normal in all patients (mean value 65,3 ± 5,8%). Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) (LVMI 149,8 ± 20 g/m 2) and LV diastolic dysfunction were observed in 33 (40,7%) and 58 (71,6%) patients, respectively. Median NT-proBNP value was 621,5 pg/ml (min 33 pg/ml; max 3849 pg/ml), NT-proBNP elevation (> 125 pg/ml) was observed in 47 (58%) patients. NT-proBNP level positively correlated with the number of points on the Child-Pugh score (R =0,27, p < 0,05). There was no relationship between the severity of cirrhosis and structural and functional cardiac changes. Conclusion: Patients with alcoholic LC frequently demostrate structural and functional cardiac changes such as left ventricular hypertrophy, diastolic dysfunction. NT-proBNP elevation was observed in more than half of the patients and directly correlated with the severity of cirrhosis.


Recent studies have shown a lack of implementation of gout recommendations in primary care. In this context of therapeutic inertia, the French Society of Rheumatology (SFR) published its first recommendations on gout (RECO) in 2020 [1,2], which were deliberately simple and concise.To determine the profile of patients referred to French gout expert centres, and to examine the results of their management.Three hundred patients attending a first visit for gout management in three French referral centres were retrospectively included. Visits were performed at baseline (M0) and scheduled for month 6 (M6), month 12 (M12), and month 24 (M24). Data collected included: patient profile; disease activity and treatments; serum urate (SU) level; estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR).Patients were 81% male, mean age 62.2 ± 15.2 years, 42.7% prevalence of eGFR <60ml/min/1.73m2, 28.1% diabetes mellitus, and 25.4% had a history of major cardiovascular event. Management followed French recommendations after the baseline visit in 94.9% of cases. Overall, 50 patients (16.7%) received off-label anakinra for flare treatment or flare prophylaxis. SU levels were below 6.0mg/dL in 59.4% of patients at M6, 67.9% at M12, and 78.6% at M24. At M24, 50% of patients were treated with allopurinol (313 ± 105 mg/d), which exceeded renal restrictions of doses in 61.5% of them, and 48.2% received febuxostat (84 ± 36mg/d). At inclusion, 94% of patients had experienced at least one flare in the previous six months, versus 23.6% at M12, and 13.1% at M24 (of which 8/12 (66.7%) had SU>6.0mg/dL).Simple application of gout management guidelines is feasible in clinical practice, and is efficient with a majority of patients achieving SU targets and clinical improvement. A minority of patients in referral centres have 'difficult-to-treat' gout requiring specific management.[1]Latourte A, et al. 2020 Recommendations from the French Society of Rheumatology for the management of gout: Management of acute flares. Joint Bone Spine 2020;87:387-93.[2]Pascart T, et al. 2020 recommendations from the French Society of Rheumatology for the management of gout: Urate-lowering therapy. Joint Bone Spine 2020;87:395- 404.Charlotte Jauffret: None declared, Sebastien Ottaviani: None declared, Augustin Latourte Consultant of: Novartis, Hang Korng Ea: None declared, Sahara Graf: None declared, Frederic Lioté Grant/research support from: for the European Crystal Network workshops from Astra-Zeneca, Grunenthal, Horizon Pharmaceuticals, Ipsen Pharma, Menarini France and global, Novartis France, Olatec, Selecta, SOBI, Thomas Bardin Consultant of: Astra-Zeneca, Biomex, Grunenthal, Horizon Pharmaceuticals, Ipsen Pharma, Menarini France and global, Novartis France, Savient and Sobi, Pascal Richette: None declared, Tristan Pascart Consultant of: from Novartis, Grant/research support from: from Horizon Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Variant Bio


China has proposed to build a new development pattern of domestic and international dual cycles. In the dual circulation, the export ofChina is given up by China's government. China tries to replace the external demand by increasing internal demand. China's dual cycle policy is bound to greatly affect China's foreign trade. Through literature review and qualitative analysis, this paper studies the impact of dual cycle on China's manufacturing industry. Taking the power of Gree Electric Appliance as an example, this paper discusses the specific impact of double cycle on the enterprise and the Countermeasures of the enterprise. On the whole, the double cyclewill have a great negative impact onChina'smanufacturing


ltaru OHTA Faculty of Science, Kyoto University Thirty-seven livestock disease categories of the Turkana are examined. Special attention was directed toward their etymology, curative means, and etiology. The Turkana have not developed therapeutic measures. They lack pathogenic explanations and the etiology is of little significance in their dealing with livestock diseases. It is only the classification of diseases which attains high development. All livestock disease names have their etymology in the conspicuous symptoms and/or the parts of body where the given disease occurs. In their system, what is classified is not the disease as the causes of disorder in health, but the conspicuous uncommonness visible on the animals' body. Because the disease names have their motive in the substances of disease (symptoms), referring itself to the morbid condition of animals, functions as a diagnostic process.


Since the modern wireless communication system with various signals and interferes tends to utilize an array antenna with the large size of elements, it is important to accurately estimate the number of signals. Although most of the signal number estimation algorithms calculate it for the entire range of angles, it is inefficient when signals exist in specific ranges. In this paper, we propose a beamspace based Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and Minimum Description Length (MDL) algorithm for efficiently estimating the number of signals in the specific range. The estimation performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated and analyzed through the computer simulation.


Soil carbon flux is a vital part of the terrestrial ecosystem carbon cycle. Carbon dioxide released from soil is 10% to 20% of the total amount of that in atmosphere, equal to carbon assimilation by photosynthesis in plant canopies. Thus accurate measurement of regional soil carbon flux is significant for research on carbon cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. Remote data combined with models to analyze regional carbon balance is important but unreliable. The data from direct measurement of soil carbon flux turns to be more accurate. During the measuring process, random sampling results in inaccurate estimates of the regional soil carbon flux because of strong spatial heterogeneity. Another method, multi鄄point sampling in a wide area, requires much more human labor and equipment costs. However, a wireless sensor net (WSN) is


between the past and the present. For, as Wharton ironically suggests, "one never knows" exactly how elusive the past is. But, despite Grace's subtle attempts to protect herself from the discovery of this connection between the past and the present, as the emblematic action of dropping her knitting indicates, she learns, as the knitter, to accept the gradual uncovering of the linkage between the past and the present. The first time she "drop[s] her knitting" is right after Alida produces a "hardly audible laugh" of jealousy (51). Then, when Alida announces that she had written the love note that sent Grace to the Colosseum, "[Grace's] bag, her knitting and gloves, slid[e] in a panic-stricken heap to the ground" (53). Now it becomes clear to Grace that she has been clinging to false memories. Clearly, the delicate pattern of memories she has been knitting for herself suddenly falls from her grasp, for memory turns out to be the interpretation and not the knowledge of the past. As Wharton marks earlier turning points in the story, so she marks the climax through a reference to knitting. Now, for the knitter, the act of remembering becomes, to use Homi K. Bhabha's argument, the painful act of re-membering, "a putting together of the dismembered past to make sense of the trauma of the present" (63). With Alida's announcement, the present trauma of emotions (that both women have been struggling to cover and control) breaks out on the surface, and the two women are forced to confront the buried and mangled past. But dropping the black handbag is significant because it suggests that the burden of guilt slips away from Grace as she is forced to acknowledge her guilty past. Indeed, Grace alone is the knitter because she alone acquires the grace with which to acknowledge the past and hence to see the connection between the present and the past.


Offline reinforcement learning (RL) methodologies enforce constraints on the policy to adhere closely to the behavior policy, thereby stabilizing value learning and mitigating the selection of out-of-distribution (OOD) actions during test time. Conventional approaches apply identical constraints for both value learning and test time inference. However, our findings indicate that the constraints suitable for value estimation may in fact be excessively restrictive for action selection during test time. To address this issue, we propose a Mildly Constrained Evaluation Policy (MCEP) for test time inference with a more constrained target policy for value estimation. Since the target policy has been adopted in various prior approaches, MCEP can be seamlessly integrated with them as a plug-in. We instantiate MCEP based on TD3-BC [Fujimoto and Gu, 2021] and AWAC [Nair et al., 2020] algorithms. The empirical results on MuJoCo locomotion tasks show that the MCEP significantly outperforms the target policy and achieves competitive results to state-of-the-art offline RL methods. The codes are open-sourced at https://github.com/egg-west/MCEP.git.


• You have pain that stops you going to sleep at night. • Your pain does not improve with rest, medicines, exercise or other treatments. • Your affected joint makes it difficult for you to look after yourself (such as showering, getting dressed, preparing meals, getting out of a chair) and you require help from others for everyday tasks. • Your condition makes it difficult for you to work or look after people who require your care. • Your pain is keeping you from doing things you enjoy, such as exercising or doing hobbies.


The dependence of the expression level of the wheat proteinase inhibitor gene EU 293132.1 on the degree of acetylation of chitooligosaccharides and the trophicity of the pathogen was revealed. When wheat plants were infected with hemibiotrophus Septoria nodorum, high stimulating effect on the activity of proteinase inhibitors was provided by chitooligosaccharides with a degree of acetylation of 30%, and when infected with necrotrophus Bipolaris sorokiniana – chitooligosaccharides with a degree of acetylation of 65%.


Dynamic elements can be included in the rulemaking process through intra- and inter-jurisdictional feedback effects that improve the availability and quality of information for rulemaking. Key features associated with governmental contracts, such as the corporate wrongdoers' self-reporting, preemptive remedial measures instituted by the entity to avoid corporate criminal indictment, and the government's investigation of specific corporate wrongdoing, facilitate multilevel feedback effects that increase the availability and quality of information for rulemaking. Governmental contracts can thus integrate dynamic elements in rulemaking.


Recognizing the need to balance environmental costs with benefits to society, Barbour examines the conflicting material, social and environmental values and political forces involved in the difficult policy decisions relating to technology and the environment.


This paper described a new analytical method based on inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for simultaneously determining the thirteen impurity elements in pure gold,including silver,copper,iron,lead,antimony,bismuth,palladium,magnesium,tin,nickel,manganese,chromium,and arsenic.The samples were dissolved in aqua regia.Rhodium was used as the internal standard.The dissolved samples were directly tested without matrix being separated and aqua regia was used as the testing medium.The best instrumental working condition was chosen.The detection limits of iron,copper,lead,antimony,bismuth,palladium,silver,nickel,magnesium,arsenic,tin,manganese,and chromium were 1.80,0.86,1.23,0.90,0.26,0.39,1.05,0.33,1.61,2.30,1.15,1.05,0.89 ng/mL,respectively,the recovery rates for the detected elements were between 98.6% to 102.8% and the relative standard deviations(RSD,n=6) were 1.0%~3.0%.


Abstract The traditional view of divine conservation holds that it is simply a continuation of the initial act of creation. In this essay, I defend the continuous-creation tradition against William Lane Craig's criticism that continuous creation fundamentally misconstrues the intuitive distinction between creation and conservation. According to Craig, creation is the unique causal activity of bringing new patient entities into existence, while conservation involves acting upon already existing patient entities to cause their continued existence. I defend continuous creation by challenging Craig's intuitive distinction and by showing that the alternative account of creation and conservation he bases upon it is fraught with serious internal difficulties.


In this article is discussed the new reality of residing in Sofia after 1989 and the tendencies of development of the urban territory concerning housing areas. It is argue that the transformations of the urban reality are significant and they concern the social structure as well as its' territorial partition through housing space. It is clear that Sofia lost great quantity of public spaces and got larger. A part of the Sofia urban sprawl is converted to high quality place of residing. The relatively heterogeneous housing communities of the socialist city now are predominantly transformed to homogeneous ones. Fragmentation and segregation between city centre, inner city urban territories and outskirts are changing dramatically the social stratification of the society. There are limited number of studies presenting the changing situation and few research temptations to explain the phenomena. Using qualitative and quantitative data and information, collected between 20052010 for a special project, the article suggest reasons for this new reality of residing and try to emphasize some future visions for the housing in post-socialist Sofia. Sofia, housing transformation, social stratification, urban segregation, visions of development Sofia After 1989: New Reality of Residential Development


The objective of this study was to evaluate the growth and yield of macadamia nut (Macadamia integrifolia) cultivars in an intercropped system with irrigated coffee (Coffea arabica). The experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design with ten replicates. Six macadamia cultivars, from which three Brazilian (IAC 4-12B, IAC 4-20, and IAC 9-20) and three Hawaiian (HAES 344, HAES 660, and HAES 816) ones were used. In the first four years of production, evaluations were done for: plant height, canopy and stem diameter, number of nuts per plant, nut average weight, almond medium weight, nut production per plant, recovery rate, and almond production per plant. The Brazilian cultivars, especially IAC 4-20, showed a lower height, but with a larger canopy diameter. The Brazilian cultivars are more productive, among which IAC 4-12B is outstanding.


High-frequency air-coupled ground-penetrating radar (GPR) systems are used in road engineering for achiev-ing high-resolution and fast imaging of the shallow layers of pavements. Regulatory policies on the permitted radiated power enacted by some international agencies for information and communication technologies, such as, the Federal Communications Commission operating in the United States, have led manufacturers to market low-powered GPR systems to comply with the standards.
The signal collected by these systems is more unstable than ordinary-powered GPRs, with the interpretation of the raw data being misleading or, mostly, totally subjective or even impossible. Thereby, the use of relevant signal processing techniques combined purposely within procedural schemes may help to reach reliability and effectiveness levels close to those granted by standard systems. In this study, a post-processing scheme aimed at maximising the correlation between signals collected by low-powered and standard 2 GHz antenna systems in railway and road surveys is presented.


Abstract Although Astragalus nebrodensis plays a fundamental ecological role, mycorrhizal fungi associated with this species have never been investigated in natural habitats. Our aim was to check the presence and occurrence of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) in roots of A. nebrodensis in a natural habitat and to screen the fungal diversity in the surrounding soil, considering the positive influence of mycotrophic shrub species on soil microbiota. A morphological analysis was performed on A. nebrodensis roots samples from the Madonie mountains (Sicily, Italy), while high-throughput-sequencing was carried out in A. nebrodensis roots and in the associated soil. Observations of A. nebrodensis roots revealed typical structures of AMF. Sequencing revealed that Ascomycota was the most abundant phylum in both roots and soil samples, followed by Basidiomycota and Mucoromycota. A. nebrodensis roots host a fungal community with lower richness as compared to soil and specific taxa were differentially abundant between roots and soil. The endomycorrhizal symbiosis in A. nebrodensis from a natural habitat is reported here for the first time. The fungal diversity between the two matrices (soil vs roots) supports the notion of a specialised and well-established root microbiome in A. nebrodensis enabling it to survive the stressful conditions of its harsh environment.


(57) Abstract: The present invention, in a medium acceptable for cosmetic and / or dermatological, comprising at least one compound having imino phenol fragment, to the skin and / or superficial body growths composition for topical application, and, as a depigmenting agent and / or lightening agents into the compositions, to the use of said compounds. The present invention also relates to the composition of skin, hair, and consists of applying to / or hair, skin, hair, and / or to a method for and / or bright depigmenting head hair.


J. de C. Sowerby (1836, p. 335) founded two new species of, Pollicipes from the Gault of Folkestone. To the one, based on a carina and tergum, he gave the name P. lœvis (p. 335, pl. xi, fig. 5); to the other, based on a rostrum and one of the latera of the lower whorl, the name P. unguis (p. 335, pl. xi, fig. 5*). He also referred a carina and tergum from the Upper Greensand of Blackdown to P. lœvis (p. 340, pl. xvi, fig. 1), but published no description of them.


This article explores the relationship between courage and leadership as it applies to Catholic educators. Scripture, literature, contemporary leadership theory, and modern culture are used in the development of an approach to leadership that is both theologically sound and culturally relevant. The author criticizes popular views of leadership, especially the work of Stephen Covey, in articulating a Catholic worldview and a functional leadership theory for Catholic educators.


A very simple, but almost exact, image method is proposed for the analysis of vertical thin-wire antennas above ground. The method is based on the approximation of the actual field of a current element above and below the ground surface by the field of a few (typically three) images. The relative image current intensities are obtained by stipulating that the tangential components of the electric and magnetic field for the two cases, at a number of points at the interface, satisfy the boundary conditions. The field of these , images is next incorporated into the Hallen equation, current distribution is approximated by polynomials, and unknown coefficients are determined by point-matching. The results obtained for the impedance, current distribution and the radiation field of such dipoles are found to practically coincide with the exact results (i.e. those obtained from the Sommerfeld theory), in spite of the proposed method being conceptually much simpler and requiring about ten times less computing time than the exact method.


Stress hyperglycemia is frequent, important for prognostication, but commonly neglected finding in critical illnesses, including acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Evidence has been accumulating exponentially about the significance of stress hyperglycemia in AMI, with some important new information. Innovative approaches (such as using different cut-off values for patients with and without known diabetes mellitus) may help optimizing clinical utility of stress hyperglycemia in critical illnesses. However, some essential questions remained to be answered in near future, as they are relevant to everyday clinical practice.


Abstract Tin(II) sulfide (SnS) is a low symmetric orthorhombic double-layered dual bandgap semiconductor. It is low cost, toxic-free and highly abundant on Earth, with multifunctional optical, electronic, magnetic and light conversion applications when doped adequately with impurity. These physical properties can be understood only by the complete understanding of microstructural properties like average structure, electron density distribution inside the unit cell, bonding nature and local structure. In this work, the average and local structure, along with the electron density distribution of a nano crystallite sized single-phase sample of tin(II) sulfide is elucidated with the help of precise X-ray intensity data. The average structural information was extracted using Rietveld refinement analysis and the visual mapping of 3D, 2D and 1D electron density distribution inside the unit cell and its numerical contribution using maximum entropy method (MEM). The bonding between the first inter and intra bonding between Sn and S atoms is 2.65,105 Å and 3.2689 Å with mid bond electron density 0.907 e/Å3 and 0.1688 e/Å3 respectively. The inter-atomic correlations of 1st, 2nd and 3rd nearest neighbour atoms, their bond length, and the crystallite size are reported from pair distribution function (PDF) analysis using low Q-XRD data (Q ∼ 6.5 Å−1). The PDF analysis shows that the first and second nearest Sn–S bonding distance is 2.6064 Å and 3.4402 Å, first is between the Sn and S atoms of the same layer and the other between the Sn and S atoms of the adjacent layers respectively.


Abstract The present study was undertaken in 2008 to assess the extent of social isolation amongst the aged for various dimensions of social isolation. It is based upon 120 aged people (65 and above years),drawn from an urban setting (Ludhiana city). The sample was distributed equally over the three socio-economic strata (high, middle and low) and the two sexes. The results revealed that the males and females experienced social isolation in comparable proportions and degrees, across various dimensions of social isolation (family, friends, neighbours and coping mechanisms) and at all socio-economic levels (high, middle and low). The reported high levels of social isolation in both the sexes were impacted more by the family and friends rather than the neighbours and coping mechanisms dimensions.


While a plethora of techniques are available for ventral hernia repair (VHR), these may fall short in the face of chronic near-total loss of abdominal domain. The Wittmann patch (Star Surgical, Burlington, WI) has been described in the literature as an acute method of maintaining abdominal wall integrity with planned re-laparotomy. However, we demonstrate that it is also an effective adjunct to traditional methods of abdominal wall reconstruction (AWR) in the management of chronic loss of abdominal domain. Methods: All patients at the senior authors' institutions who underwent Wittmann patch placement with subsequent AWR were retrospectively reviewed. Data collected included patient demographics, co-morbidities, prior abdominal surgeries including previous AWRs, operative reports, and post-operative follow-up. Descriptive statistics were used as appropriate for data analysis. Results: Seven patients underwent AWR with Wittmann patch placement by the senior authors. For patients with available data, the average number of prior abdominal operations was 4.33 and the average number of previous failed AWRs was 2.67. The average greatest dimension of the hernia defect was 17.5 centimeters. The time from Wittmann patch placement to removal and definitive AWR was 16.2 days. For patients with available data, average hospital stay after placement of the Wittmann patch was 24.3 days and patients were discharged home an average of 5 days after definitive VHR. Average follow-up for six patients was 12.1 months. After placement of the Wittmann patch, there were no instances of abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS). There have been no recurrent hernias, 1 wound infection managed with oral antibiotics, 1 seroma, and 2 post-operative deep venous thromboses (DVT). There have been no instances of enterocutaneous (EC) fistulae. ConClusions: The Wittmann patch, or a similar device, is an effective adjunctive technique in acute loss of abdominal domain that may safely be added to the surgeon's armamentarium for the management of chronic ventral hernias with near-total loss of abdominal domain. PuRPose: Use of mesh during repair of ventral hernia reduces recurrence rates compared to suture repair alone, but has been associated with increased rates of infection and seroma. As such, no ideal mesh material for complex abdominal wall reconstruction (CAWR) has yet been identified. Poly-4-hydroxybutyric acid (P4HB, Phasix®) is a degradable biosynthetic polymer, which maintains its tensile strength for at least 6 months and can be woven into a mesh for use in soft tissue reinforcement. We reviewed our experience using a P4HB mesh in CAWR. Methods: All patients (n=52) …


This paper provides a new design procedure for robust current controllers applied to LCL-filtered grid-tied inverters suitable for the integration of renewable energy sources. The design takes into account the digital implementation delay, multiple resonant controllers and operation under uncertain grid impedance. The procedure is based on the optimization of an objective function that allows to get a good trade-off between the settling of transient responses and rejection of disturbances. A particle swarm algorithm is used to find the optimal control gains and, differently from other works, here the robust stability of the closed-loop system under uncertain parameters is theoretically certified by means of linear matrix inequalities. Experimental results are shown, confirming that the closed-loop system with gains obtained by the proposed procedure presents a good tradeoff between robustness and performance, with suitable transients and grid currents with low harmonic content, complying with requirements from IEEE 1547 Standard, becoming a useful robust control design alternative for power converters in the distributed generation scenario.


In the classical load balancing or multiprocessor scheduling problem, we are given a sequence of jobs of varying sizes and are asked to assign each job to one of the m empty processors. A typical objective is to minimize makespan, the load on the heaviest loaded processor. Since in most real world scenarios the load is a dynamic measure, the initial assignment may be not remain optimal with time. Motivated by such considerations in a variety of systems, we formulate the problem of load rebalancing --- given a possibly suboptimal assignment of jobs to processors, relocate a set of the jobs so as to decrease the makespan. Specifically, the goal is to achieve the best possible makespan under the constraint that no more than k jobs are relocated. We also consider a generalization of this problem where there is an arbitrary cost function associated with each job relocation. Since the problem is clearly NP-hard, we focus on approximation algorithms. We construct a sophisticated algorithm which achieves a 1.5-approximation, with near linear running time. We also show that the problem has a PTAS, resolving the complexity issue. Finally, we investigate the approximability of several extensions of the rebalancing model.


In the production process of fermented flour paste by enzymatic method,using standard flour, moisture of steamed flour ranging from 32%~36%, materials temperature between 35 ℃ to 38 ℃ in koji making, adding glucoamylase of 0.4% to 0.6% and α-amylase 0.8%~1% can reduce the fermentation period by half, and the product quality is fine.


[Objective] To study a naval enzymolysis method for preparation of soybean peptides with slightly bitter flavor and provide reference for their wide range of applications in food and medicine.[Method] Alcalase protease and Flavourzyme enzyme were successively used to hydrolyze soybean protein isolate.The effects of main hydrolysis parameters including pH,temperature,enzyme concentration and substrate concentration on Alcalase protease were studied using single-factor analysis and orthogonal test design,and determined the optimum hydrolysis conditions.Meanwhile,the debitterizing effect of Flavourzyme enzyme was also studied.[Result] The optimum hydrolysis conditions of soybean protein isolate hydrolyzed with Alcalase protease were pH 8.0,60 ℃,1 000 U/g,3% substrate and 2 h.In the conditions,the hydrolysis degree of soybean protein isolate was up to 46.13%.Moreover,Flavourzyme enzymes obviously debitterized the soybean peptide.[Conclusion] The soybean peptides that were prepared by hydrolysis of soybean protein isolate with Alcalase protease and Flavourzyme enzyme have no obvious bitterness and can be widely used in food production.


Aiming at real-time acquisition,displaying and storing the value of physiological parameters such as the amount of exercise,body temperature and ECG.A low-power portable dynamic health information monitor is designed which using the 16-bit microcontroller MSP430F149 as the control center,and the three-dimensional acceleration sensor MMA7260,temperature sensor DS18B20,the ECG electrodes as the acquisition module.Through simulation,prototype testing,the monitor has achieved the desired goals: real-time detection,key-control displaying and storing.In addition to these,this system can give the timely alarm when the physiological parameters anomalous.In summary,the design has the characteristics of low power consumption,lightweight and simple operation,which makes its application field wide.


ABSTRACT The concentration of 16 trace elements (V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Mo, As, Cd, Hg, Sn, Se, Sb, Ba, Ag and Pb) has been determined in 39 points distributed over the 2300 km2 of the Kozani-Ptolemaïda-Amynteon basin (Western Macedonia). In this area there are four lignite power plants, with an installed power of 4048 MW, which discharged into atmosphere around 69500 tons/year of fly ash. Seventy soil samples, 0 to 20 cm depths, from both uncultivated and cultivated soils have been investigated. Except for Cr, Mn, Ni and Co in three uncultivated soil samples, no statistically significant increased concentrations could be evidenced in the considered area.


Aiming at the problem of solving nonlinear ordinary differential equations with variable coefficients, this paper introduces the elastic transformation method into the process of solving ordinary differential equations for the first time. A class of first-order and a class of third-order ordinary differential equations with variable coefficients can be transformed into the Laguerre equation through elastic transformation. With the help of the general solution of the Laguerre equation, the general solution of these two classes of ordinary differential equations can be obtained, and then the curves of the general solution can be drawn. This method not only expands the solvable classes of ordinary differential equations, but also provides a new idea for solving ordinary differential equations with variable coefficients.


To the Editor. —I read with interest the article "Can States Take the Lead in Health Care Reform?" by Moon and Holahan. 1 They concede that "states can demonstrate new approaches and take important steps toward improving access and/or containing cost" but continue to the puzzling conclusion that "relying on states alone is unlikely to be the answer to the national problem." This betrays blind faith in an omniscient federal power to solve a problem where individual states have failed. This is the worst possible conclusion. In the effort to make a profit, entrepreneurs compete in the market. The consumer benefits from the smorgasbord of options and prices. Yet many say that health care is not subject to market forces and that the demand is "inelastic." This assumption is wrong, and the truth of the matter lies with three questions. First, "Is 'health care' a single community, or is it a


Empirical literature fails to agree on how the performance of the stock market and inflation are related as explained by Fama (1981) and Fisher (1930). The relationship had been mixed and this research makes an empirical investigation on this relationship using Zimbabwean data from 1980-2008. The study employed VECM approach to test the dynamic relationship in the short and long term and to understand the key drivers of each variable. Findings support the Fisher hypothesis but stocks did not offer perfect protection from the effects of inflation over the long period. Each variable was mainly driven by its own lagged variable while the importance of one variable in explaining the variation in the other variables was moderate. Investors should not hold and view equities as long term investments providing them with compensation for loss of purchasing power. They can hold equities as good buys in the short to medium term.


Asymptomatic adnexal masses are diagnosed incidentally in 4% of pregnancies (1). Majority of them are benign and are of ovarian origin (1). Giant cysts, though uncommon, are challenging to the surgeon, in their removal. Such huge cysts were conventionally managed by laparotomy. In spite of all the advantages inherent to minimal access surgery, many surgeons refrain from removing them laparoscopically due to the risk of malignancy and the spillage of contents. This is a case report where a giant benign cystic teratoma (dermoid cyst) of 27 cm size was successfully excised laparoscopically. The greatest challenge was the retrieval of the huge specimen which would not fit into the largest endobag. The cyst was successfully removed using the ovarian wall as the endobag, which curtailed peritoneal soiling by the intra-cystic contents. We hope that this paper will add to the emerging evidence on the safety of laparoscopy in removing such gigantic cysts, refuting the myth that spillage of contents and its complications increases in proportion with cyst size. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest reported ovarian cyst, removed laparoscopically in Qatar.


In recent years, multiple transmitter and receiver antennas are employed in the wireless communications systems to adapt various demands of high speed wireless links. In order to take full advantage of the Multi Input Multi Output (MIMO) systems, precoding technique is needed at the transmitter side. Generally, the precoding algorithm may be classified as either diagonal or nondiagonal type. Many precoding techniques exist in literature. This literature survey deals with different types of precoders for MIMO systems in the existing methods.


The task of objects recognition on digital images is becoming increasingly urgent in connection with the development of intelligent robotic system. The initial stage of any methods of rec-ognition is a pre-selection of targets. A method of objects selection which has high accuracy and low computational complexity.


Based on the demographic shift and the related challenges resulting from the growing number of elderly and persons with chronic diseases, the idea of smart home that supports its inhabitants in the daily life, gains importance. The purpose of this paper was to examine in a prototypic Ambient Assisted Living environment if users after interaction with different health- supporting applications intend to use such in the future. Two experimental studies exemplary show possible applications of home-integrated technology that can support, assist and accompany the target group in different contexts, and examine to what extent participants are willing to future use such sophisticated technology at home. The results show that people in general, but especially the old and chronically ill ones are quite fascinated of health-supporting ambient technology and the majority intends to use such ambient assistance in the future (study I). Moreover, serious games for healthcare are shown as a hedonic use of technology in smart homes that have a great potential to retain or improve the physical health, mobility and the overall well-being of the inhabitants (study II). The article provides two examples of ambient technology to leverage the demographic change and presents important user factors for facilitating high user acceptance.


Indirect and direct assessments are widely used to measure the function of challenging behaviors of children in clinical settings. The current study involved comparing results from indirect assessments in identifying the functions of challenging behaviors of 24 children, i.e., Questions About Behavi


Modem long- distance education is an education system based on network technology,which can realice to cany on longdistance educational teaching by real tome and not real rime each other. As a new education.it is developed rapidly on it's own advantages and characters, and gradually cognized and familiarized by people.There are some questions in to its development, which are worthed to think about.


Abstract An improved reversed-phase High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic (HPLC) method using UV detection, at 282 nm, is described for the determination of tolfenamic acid in the presence of caffeine, as internal standard, in pharmaceutical preparations and biological fluids. Sample analyses are performed with a Lichrosorb-RP18, 10 μm, 250×4 mmLD., column using acetate buffer, (pH 4.6 and constant ionic strength 0.05 M) methanol (18:82) as eluent, at a flow rate of 1.9 ml/min. The retention time is 1.44 min for caffeine and 2.62 min for tolfenamic acid. The absolute detection limit is 0.5 ng in the presence and 0.9 ng in the absence of internal standard and linearity is observed up to 100 ng injected. The method involves the use of solid


We apply the variational Monte Carlo method to study the beryllium, boron, and carbon atoms. An explicitly correlated wave function is used in order to include the dynamic correlation among the electrons. The nondynamic correlation due to the 2s-2p near degeneracy effect present in these atoms is taken into account by using a multideterminant wave function.


Objectives : To obtain basic data on blood lead level and urinary level of arsenic and cadmium of children living near a petrochemical estate and a suburban area in Ulsan, Korea and to observe the trend of the changes. In the level of these metals in these children. Methods : The study subjects comprised 626 children living near a petrochemical estate and 299 children living in a suburban area of Ulsan. We analyzed the level of lead, arsenic and cadmium using atomic absorption spectrometer. Results : The mean levels of blood lead in children living near the petrochemical estate were , and in the years 1997, 1999, and 2000, respectively, whereas those of children living in the suburban area were respectively. The mean levels of urinary arsenic in children living near the petrochemical estate were creatinine, creatinine, and creatinine in the year 1997, 1999, and 2000 respectively, whereas those of children living in suburban area were creatinine, creatinine, and creatinine, respectively. The mean levels of urinary cadmium in children living near the petrochemical estate were creatinine, creatinine, and creatinine in the year 1997, 1999, and 2000, respectively, whereas those of the children living in the suburban area were creatinine, creatinine, and creatinine, respectively. There were increasing trends in the level of blood lead, urinary arsenic and cadmium of children in Ulsan, and the differences in the level of these metals were disappearing between the children living in other areas year by year. Conclusions : These results suggest that the amount of exposure to lead, arsenic, and cadmium is increasing from year to year, and there is a need for periodic biological and atmospheric monitoring of these metals in Ulsan.


The purpose of this study was to examine obesity management practices and variables influencing those practices of members of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (n = 1246). The 3 primary methods used by the 424 respondents to determine overweight or obesity were weight-for-height (75%), weight-for-age (62%), and visual determination (52%). Over two thirds of respondents indicated that when a child is overweight or obese, weight was discussed, family, diet, and physical activity histories were taken, counseling was provided, and patients were referred to dietitians. The primary barriers to enhancing obesity management were patient compliance (87%), time (75%), and patient interest (51%). The primary strategies to expand obesity management were education materials (78%), seminar on pediatric obesity (65%), and better reimbursement (61%). Patient compliance had a significant impact on taking a diet history (P = .0011), providing diet counseling (P = .0043), and screening patients for type 2 diabetes mellitus (P = .0494); patient interest had a significant impact on use of body mass index to determine overweight or obesity (P = .0117). The majority of respondents view dietitians as a credible source of nutrition information.


under-investigated in the field, but it neglects the ruling party and the entire party system. Opposition parties do not operate in a vacuum, and their interaction with other parties needs to be taken into account as well in order to understand their strength. Finally, the structure of the book is a bit confusing, as there are separate chapters for Zimbabwe on the one hand, and Zambia and Kenya on the other hand. This is confusing as the eventual comparison is mainly between Zimbabwe and Zambia on the one hand, versus Kenya on the other hand. Moreover, as a consequence of this structure, there is no balance in the quantity of the empirical material of the three cases, with Zimbabwe clearly getting most attention in the book. Additional evidence from other countries is certainly needed to determine whether LeBas' findings can be generalised or not. Still, this book fills a gap. African political parties and party systems have not yet attracted significant attention, and there are still too many assumptions about the strengths and development of party organisations in the African context. Moreover, this study is a serious attempt to compare countries in a systematic way, justifying its case selection and applying the comparative methodology in a rigorous way, which is rare in studies on African politics. Finally, the book is full of rich in-depth empirical material, particularly on Zimbabwe. The book is clearly written and accessible, tries to answer an important and neglected question in an innovative way, and includes original empirical material, which is certainly worth reading. I certainly would recommend this book to students, scholars and policy makers who are interested in the impact of historical legacy and trade unions on opposition parties in hybrid regimes in Africa.


Leiomyosarcoma of inferior vena cava is a rare soft tissue sarcoma presenting with vague abdominal pain. Complete surgical resection with clear surgical margin plays a central therapeutic role. The effect of chemotherapy and radiation therapy is controversial. We reported a female patient with invasion both renal veins by this disease. It was surgically excised and replaced with graft and right renal vein was anastomosed to graft without any complications. Histopathological examination of the specimen grade II leiomyosarcoma arising from the vena cava. She is alive at 36th month.


It is well known that, crystalline silicon substrate's surface has an oxide layer (SiOx), typically of a few nm thick. The layer thickness depends on the orientation of the substrate as well. There are several types of oxides depending on their mode of growth, viz : thermal oxide, CVD oxide, anodized oxide etc. of various thicknesses due to their importance in microelectronics industry. SiO2 is widely used as gate insulators in the fabrication of metal oxide semiconductor devices, masking layer, isolation dielectric and as passivation layer [139] . In the case of MOS devices, current passes through the SiO2/Si interface and passivation by the oxide layer is important for the operation of such devices. It also acts as an insulation between individual devices on the same Si substrate. Thin oxide film also acts as a capacitor, charge storage capacity being inversely proportional to thickness of the oxide layer. As a


We consider the problem of covert communication over a state-dependent channel, for which the transmitter and the legitimate receiver have non-causal access to the channel state information. Covert communication with respect to an adversary, referred to as the "warden," is one in which the distribution induced during communication at the channel output observed by the warden is identical to the output distribution conditioned on an inactive channel-input symbol. Covert communication involves fooling an adversary in part by a proliferation of codebooks; for reliable decoding at the legitimate receiver the codebook uncertainty is removed via a shared secret key that is unavailable to the warden. Unlike earlier work in state-dependent covert communication, we do not assume the availability of a shared key at the transmitter and legitimate receiver. Rather, a shared randomness is extracted at the transmitter and the receiver from the channel state, in a manner that keeps the shared randomness secret from the warden despite the influence of the channel state on the warden's output. An inner bound on the covert capacity, in the absence of an externally provided secret key, is derived.


We are concerned with the long time behavior of the stochastic Navier--Stokes system for compressible fluids in dimension two and three. In this setting, the part of the phase space occupied by the solution depends sensitively on the choice of the initial state. Our main results are threefold. (i) The kinetic energy of a solution is universally and asymptotically bounded, independent of the initial datum. (ii) Time shifts of a solution with initially controlled energy are asymptotically compact and generate an entire solution defined for all $t\in R$. (iii) Every solution with initially controlled energy generates a stationary solution and even an ergodic stationary solution on the closure of the convex hull of its $\omega$--limit set.


The Vilnius photometric system, consisting of seven passbands at 345, 374, 405, 466, 516, 544 and 656 nm makes it possible to determine spectral classes (or temperatures), absolute magnitudes (or surface gravities), metallicities and peculiarity types for stars of all spectral types in the presence of interstellar reddening (Straižys 1977, 1992a,b). This makes the system very useful for the determination of the physical parameters of stars which are too faint to be studied by spectroscopic methods. The system is especially effective when used with CCD detectors which combine a wide field, high sensitivity and high photometric accuracy.


A strong 1/sup +/ state which has a large component of the ..pi..(h/sub 11/2//sup -1/h/sub 9/2/) configuration was found at 5.845 MeV of excitation in /sup 208/Pb from the reactions /sup 208/Pb(p,p') and /sup 209/Bi(d, /sup 3/He). The 4.841-MeV state which was recently suggested to be 1/sup +/ is shown to be a 1/sup -/ state.


The COVID-19 pandemic, a disease caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), emerged in 2019 and quickly spread worldwide. Genomic surveillance has become the gold standard methodology to monitor and study this emerging virus. The current deluge of SARS-CoV-2 genomic data being generated worldwide has put additional pressure on the urgent need for streamlined bioinformatics workflows for data analysis. Here, we describe a workflow developed by our group to process and analyze large-scale SARS-CoV-2 Illumina amplicon sequencing data. This workflow automates all the steps involved in SARS-CoV-2 genomic analysis: data processing, genome assembly, PANGO lineage assignment, mutation analysis and the screening of intrahost variants. The workflow presented here (https://github.com/dezordi/ViralFlow) is available through Docker or Singularity images, allowing implementation in laptops for small scale analyses or in high processing capacity servers or clusters. Moreover, the low requirements for memory and CPU cores makes it a versatile tool for SARS-CoV-2 genomic analysis.


The waxy corn inbred line"Shen - W22" , showing good quality, early ripening and high combining a-bility, was successfully developed through 18 - year breeding by gathering different - ecotype genes of good char-acters. It accords with the national standard in the variety's distinctness, uniformity, and stability through DUS testing by New Plant Variety Test Center, Ministry of Agriculture of P. R. China, this inbred line has gained a new plant variety right,It has three outstanding characteristics:① Its amylopectin content is 98. 88% , showing good glutinous quality.② Its earliness passes down steadily the growth period of the hybrids bred by using this line as a parent is between those of the parent lines and shorter than the average of those of two parent lines or approaching that of "Shen W22" with earliness.③ It has a high combining ability. The hybrids "Huyunuo No. 1" , "Huyunuo No. 2" and "Huyunuo No. 3" bred by using the line as a parent have a high yield, increasing by 5%-22.9% fiver "Suyunuo No. 1".


A spectrophotometric method is proposed for the simultaneous spectrophotometric determination of strychnine.HCl and yohimbine.HCl in pharmaceutical preparations. No preliminary separation step is required. The proposed method involves the use of the modified Vierordt equation. Accurate and reproducible results were obtained. The mean recoveries (six determinations) for strychnine.HCl and yohimbine.HCl were 98.8 ± 0.5% and 100.3 ± 0.8%, respectively. The method was applied to the determination of the two compounds in dosage forms and the results obtained were accurate and precise.


This article focuses on sustainable development in the construction industry and analyses the environmental, economic and social impacts of sustainable construction. The environmental aspects mainly include energy consumption and new energy use, garbage recycling. Sustainable construction also has a mitigating effect on some problems in urban development, such as the heat island effect. In terms of economy, sustainable construction can improve the economic efficiency of the construction industry and drive the comprehensive development of all aspects of the construction industry. On the social side, sustainable architecture reduces the pressure on the city and contributes to the long-term stability of society. Through multi-faceted assessments and analysis from different perspectives, the importance of sustainability for the current and future construction industry is illustrated. Nowadays, high energy consumption and high pollution in the building industry are harmful to humans. In order to change the status quo and meet the requirements of development, it is necessary to integrate the concept of sustainable construction into the design, construction, and energy consumption of construction in the future. The article also makes recommendations on how sustainable buildings can be well-known or recognized in the future and contribute to the sustainability of the future construction industry.


Objective. Within the multi-center double-blind randomized clinical study, investigate the bioequivalence (immediate efficacy, safety and pharmacokinetics) of BCD-022 (trastuzumab, JSC BIOCAD, Russia), as compared with Herceptin® (trastuzumab, F.Hoffmann-La Roche, Switzerland), used in combination with paclitaxel in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (HER2(+) MBC) patients. Subjects and methods. The analysis included 126 HER2(+) MBC patients aged 18 to 75 years (65 in the BCD-022 group and 61 in the Herceptin® group). The treatment was provided by scheme BCD-022 or Herceptin® 8 mg/kg intravenous drip, paclitaxel 175 mg/m2 intravenous drip in day 1 of the three-week course, then by the same scheme with trastuzumab 6 mg/kg. The treatment was continued for 6 courses or until disease progression/development of intolerable toxicity effects. The groups were randomized at 1:1 ratio. The primary endpoint for the immediate efficacy evaluating was the overall response rate (complete response rate + partial response rate), for the safety evaluating - the adverse event (AE) rate. One of the primary endpoint for the pharmacokinetics evaluating was the area under concentration-time curve (AUC0-504) of trastuzumab after a single administration. Immediate efficacy was evaluated by CT with contrast using RECIST 1.1 criteria. The safety analysis included immunogenicity evaluating of the study drugs by the formation rate and titer of binding and neutralizing antibodies to trastuzumab. Findings. Out of 126 HER2(+) MBC patients, 110 were included in the immediate efficacy analysis: 56 in BCD-022 group and 54 in Herceptin® group. It was impossible to assess the effect in 16 patients due to the lack of the necessary data: 9 in BCD-022 group and 7 in Herceptin® group (p=0.9). Of these, 2/16 patients withdrew before the start of treatment and 4/16 patients withdrew prior to the first assessment of the effect for reasons not related to confirmed progression. One patient of 16 had disturbance of trastuzumab dosing regimen, and therefore the comparison of immediate efficacy would be incorrect. One patient of 16 showed nonconformity to the inclusion/non-inclusion criteria, and the patient was excluded from the study. In 8/16 patients, characteristics of lesions or their visualization technique did not allow an assessment in accordance with RECIST 1.1 criteria. These patients received treatment in the amount of 6 courses on the Protocol to the achievement of clinical efficacy. Overall response rate was recorded in 30/56 (53.6%) (95% CI 40.7-65.9%) and 29/54 (53.7%) (95% CI 40.6-66.3%) patients in BCD-022 group and Herceptin® group, respectively (p=0.9). No statistically significant differences were found when comparing the other parameters of immediate efficiency: complete response was observed in 3/56 (5.4%) and 2/54 (3.7%) patients, partial response in 27/56 (48.2%) and 27/54 (50.0%), stabilization in 14/56 (25.0%) and 14/54 (25.9%), progression in 12/56 (21.4%) and 11/54 (20.4%) patients in BCD-022 and Herceptin® group, respectively (p>0.05). Comparison by all the main pharmacokinetic parameters (AUC0-504, Cmax, Tmax, T1/2 and Ctrough) showed no statistically significant differences between the groups. Out of 126 patients, 124 were included in the safety analysis: 63 in BCD-022 group and 61 in Herceptin® group. Two patients withdrew from the study prior to treatment. AEs were registered in 62/63 (98.4%) and 60/61 (98.4%) patients in BCD-022 group and Herceptin® group, respectively. Statistically significant differences between the groups were not identified in any of the AEs. The most common AEs were hematologic toxicity, myalgia and arthralgia. Most reported AEs were mild to moderate by CTCAE 4.03. Serious adverse events (SAEs) were reported in 10 patients: in 4/63 (6.4%) patients in BCD-022 group and in 7/61 (11.5%) Herceptin® group (2 SAEs were reported in 1 patient in the Herceptin® group) (p=0.2). In most cases SAEs were due to concomitant diseases, exposure to chemotherapeutic agents or other non-study therapy causes. Trastuzumab-related SAEs were reported in 5 patients: in 1/63 (1.6%) in BCD-022 group and in 4/61 (6.5%) in Herceptin® (р=0.2) group. Immunogenicity study revealed the emergence of binding antibodies to trastuzumab in 3/63 (4.7%) patients in BCD-022 group and in 1/61 (1.6%) in Herceptin® group, of them neutralizing antibodies to trastuzumab were reported in 1 patient in BCD-022 group and in 1 in the control group (p=1.0). Conclusion. BCD-022 (trastuzumab, JSC BIOCAD, Russia) is non-inferior to the original trastuzumab drug Herceptin® (F.Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Switzerland) on the profile of immediate efficacy, safety and pharmacokinetic properties.


Objective To observe the contraceptive effectiveness,feasibility and acceptability of two kinds of copper intrauterine device(HCu280 and GT300) in one year.Methods Clinical data were analyzed with prospective randomized study,2140 Gansu rural married women of child-bearing age were brought into this study between July 1 of 2007 and Dec.31 of 2008,HCu280 and GT300 each place 1070 cases.And the follow-up rate of one-year later was 100.00%.Results the cumulative continuation rates in the 12 months for HCu280 and GT300 were 97.57 per 100 women and 97.66 per 100 women,the cumulative pregnancy rates were 0.19 per 100 women and 0.47 per 100 women,the expulsion or moves rate were 1.51 per 100 women and 1.69 per 100 women,the cumulative discontinuation rate were 2.43 per 100 women and 2.34 per 100 women,the cumulative rates of removal for the side reaction were 0.65 per 100 women and 0.37 per 100 women,bleeding and ache was the most common adverse event.Conclusions Standard application HCu280 and GT300 can effectively improve the use of contraceptives.HCu280 and GT300 are effective for contraception.They are worthy of wide spreading in rural areas.


Objective:To investigate the protective effect of ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid(ω-3PUFA) on the remnant liver in rat with partial hepatectomy and its mechanism.Methods:Male SD rats were randomly divided into sham operated control group,model group(partial hepatectomy + normal saline),low dose ω-3PUFA treatment group(partial hepatectomy + 1 mL/kg ω-3PUFA) and high dose ω-3PUFA treatment group(partial hepatectomy + 2 mL/kg ω-3PUFA).The histopathological change of the remnant liver was dynamically assessed by light microscope at day 1,2,3 and 5 after surgery.In addition,the expression of occludin protein and the ultramicrostructural features of the hepatic cells were examined at day 3 after surgery.Results:The histopathological ndings showed that the hepatic cells and histological structures were severely damaged,while the pathological changes of the two doses of ω-3PUFA treatment groups were of markedly lesser degree but no obvious difference was noted between themselves.The expression levels of occludin protein of the two doses of ω-3PUFA treatment groups were markedly higher than that of the model group,but were similar between themselves.The electron microscopic observations revealed that the tight junctions between hepatic cells were severely disrupted,while these structures of the two doses of ω-3PUFA treatment groups were maintained relatively intact,and the high dose group was better than that of low dose group in this respect.Conclusion:The perioperative administration of ω-3PUFA can increase the occludin expression and preserve the ultramicrostructures of hepatic cells in rat with partial liver resection,which may be responsible for its e ect of hepatic barrier protection.


In this paper, we proposed a low complexity architecture design for psycho-acoustic model (PAM). PAM is key component of MPEG-2/4 advanced audio coding (AAC) encoder. It occupies heavy computation load in AAC encoder and makes the AAC encoder hard to be implemented on portable devices for real-time condition. In order to conquer questions describe above, we propose a MDCT-based PAM algorithm and its dedicated architecture to accelerate PAM calculation. The main advantage of MDCT-based PAM is the filterbanks in AAC can be reduced form three to two. Furthermore, we use look-up table method to replace computation of spreading-function. Second, the logarithmic number system (LNS) is used to reduce computation load of many special functions and data word-length. In the hardware architecture design, the pipeline is used to increase throughput of the PAM. Besides, a logarithmic unit that converts data into log scale at one cycle uses in our design. The proposed PAM architecture is implemented in UMC 0.18 CMOS technology. The total gate count is 69476


In order to improve the reasonable utilization of mineral resources and reduce unnecessary energy consumption in the process of mineral processing, the study of ore technological properties provides a theoretical basis for this purpose. This subject conducted a process mineralogy study on a mine in Xinping County, Yunnan Province and found that the ore's valuable element is iron with a grade of 28.98wt.%. And the main iron-bearing minerals are magnetite, ilmenite and limonite. Iron-bearing minerals are embedded in the ore with a finer grain size. According to the nature of the ore, a reasonable technological process for sorting the ore was determined. The iron concentrate with a grade of 60.32wt. % was obtained. The recovery rate of valuable element iron in the concentrate is 75.72%, and the beneficiation index is good. The results show that the study of process mineralogy has a strong guiding significance for beneficiation production.


A 62-year-old man had total gastrectomy for gastric cancer 14 years before presented with fever and headache during a trip to Hokkaido, Japan. Meal contents during his trip were not recorded. For one year prior to the onset, he was asymptomatic and did not take any medicine such as antiulcer agent, anticancer agent, and immunosuppressant. He was admitted on day 6 from onset with a high fever of 39.9°C and a complaint of a headache without nausea. He was alert and presented no nuchal rigidity. WBC was normal (8,000/ mm) in spite of a high CRP elevation (15.89 mg/dl). HIV antibody was negative. The brain CT imaging was normal (Fig. 1 A). About 30 hours after admission, his mental status deteriorated to semicoma rapidly and he had to be intubated. The follow-up brain CT imaging was normal, however, cere-


Plant cyclotides are a family of plant-derived macrocyclic peptides enriched with two disulfide bonds,which are formed by 28—37 amino acid residues.For their unique structures and various bioactivities,plant cyclotides have been to be the most promising materials in the field of medicine and agriculture.This paper introduces the pharmacology of cyclotides' research history of plants in genus Viola L.Through the assay of bioactivity and its mechanism of action,such as in vivo and in vitro cytotoxic,hemolytic,anti-HIV activities,providing the reference for the future research and development of plant cyclotides.


When organic materials are exposed to elemental tritium, the hydrocarbons incorporate the tritium as a result of radiation induced reactions. The use of oil based vacuum pumps in tritium service gives rise to waste oil which contains, in addition to significant amounts of dissolved HT and HTO, a complex mixture of dissolved hydrocarbon species with a wide range of volatilities. The behavior of these species in the human body is not as well understood, and consequently, reliable dosimetry models only exist for the two most common tritiated species, HT and HTO. A quantitative radio-gas chromatography technique was developed to analyse the head space above waste vacuum pump oils. The technique was then applied at the Darlington Tritium Removal Facility (TRF) to assess the tritium exposure to personnel changing the oil from one of the high tritium cold boxes. 7 refs., 2 figs., 2 tabs.


Three different starting powders were used to test the effect of sintering time at 1100°C on the dielectric properties of CaCu 3 Ti 4 O 1 2 . Dielectric properties were correlated with the grain size microstructure using a standard IBLC model. The presence of excess CuO led to discontinuous grain growth with large flat porous grains, CaCu 3 Ti 4 O 1 2 when synthesized using anatase as a titania substitute for rutile showed signs of enhanced sintering which reduced the porosity of the large grains resulting in a significant drop in dielectric loss. Room temperature permittivity varied from 10,538 to 368,970 depending on sintering time and starting powder.


Requirements Engineering (RE) is recognized as one of the most important (yet difficult) areas of software engineering that has a significant impact on other areas of IT projects and their final outcomes. Empirical studies investigating this impact are hard to conduct, mainly due to the great effort required. It is thus difficult for both researchers and industry practitioners to make evidence-based evaluations about how decisions about RE practices translate into requirement quality and influence other project areas. We propose an idea of a lightweight approach utilizing widely-used tools to enable such an evaluation without extensive effort. This is illustrated with a pilot study where the data from six industrial projects from a single organization were analyzed and three metrics regarding the requirement quality, rework effort, and testing were used to demonstrate the impact of different RE techniques. We also discuss the factors that are important for enabling the broader adoption of the proposed approach.


RATIONALE
m-Cresol is listed as the priority controlled contamination in many countries, but it is very difficult to accurately determine isomeric cresols due to the incomplete chromatographic separation of them on a commercially available chromatographic column and their nearly identical mass spectra.

METHODS
Silylation of the isomeric cresols was carried out by treatment with N-methyl-N-(trimethylsilyl)trifluoro acetamide (MSTFA). The formed trimethyl (tolyloxy)silanes were analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Theoretical calculations were carried out on the Gaussian 03 program by using the density functional theory method at the B3LYP/6-311+G(2d,p) level.

RESULTS
The derivatives of three isomeric cresols and six isomeric xylenols have been completely separated on an HP-5MS capillary column within a GC run of only 10 mins. In addition, the derivative of o-cresol can be very easily differentiated from its isomers due to its characteristic base peak ion at m/z 91 in EI-MS. DFT calculation results indicated that formation of the abundant fragment ion at m/z 91 is attributed to a facile dissociation pathway involving the shift of a neighboring phenylmethyl H atom in EI-MS of trimethyl(o-tolyloxy)silane.

CONCLUSIONS
Silylation provides a promising solution for simultaneous determination of isomeric isomeric cresols and isomeric xylenols.


The effect of atomic oxygen adsorption on the structure and electronic properties of monolayer graphite (MG or graphene) grown on Pt(111) and Ir(111) has been studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy, and scanning tunneling microscopy. For comparison, the adsorption of atomic oxygen on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite has been studied under the same conditions. Graphene oxidation predominantly occurs through the formation of epoxy groups and causes atomic-scale buckling of the graphene lattice, as evidenced by an sp2-to-sp3 bonding transformation. The different parts of the graphene/metal moire superstructure show different oxidation dynamics, with the initial formation of epoxy groups in the more bonding "pores". Upon O adsorption, the nearest C neighbors of epoxy groups get engaged in a stronger bonding with the substrate. As a result, the pores of the graphene mesh become attracted and effectively pinned to the substrate by the O atoms. A ...


The invention discloses an online bypass method of an H-bridge cascade rectifier bridge of a power electronic transformer and relates to the technical field of power. The method comprises the following steps of (1) obtaining current data of the rectifier bridge; (2) analyzing the state of the rectifier bridge according to the obtained current; (3) selecting a corresponding bypass path according to the state of the rectifier bridge; and (4) completing a bypass switching operation. According to the online bypass method, online bypass of the rectifier bridge can be achieved without adding the hardware cost on the basis of original hardware equipment, the hardware cost is greatly reduced and the operation stability of the power electronic transformer is ensured.


Objective To observe curative effects of inhalation combined with system medicine in pemphigus patients with repeated oral damage.Methods Thirty cases of observation group took glucocorticoid,symptomatic supporting therapy according to patients′ condition plus inhalation of dexamethasone in 20mL physiological saline,compared with 30 cases of control group without inhalation of dexamethasone.Results After 7 days treatment,the symptom in observation group improved significantly than that in control group.After 14 days treatment,the cure rate of the observation group was close to the control group.During the treatment,the steroid dosage and side effects in the observation group were significantly lower than in the control group.Conclusion Inhalation is useful for the patients of pemphigus with repeated oral damage,could shorten course of disease,quickly decrease the dose of glucocorticoid and reduce the side effect.It is worthy to used in clinic.


311 DAMPs induced by mechanical stress and skin injury stimulate natural killer and type-1 innate lymphoid cells, which leads to IFNproduction [8]. Melanocytes with defective SWI/SNF complexes are highly sensitive to IFNand express CXCL9, CXCL10 and MHC class I in response to IFNstimulation, which results in melanocyte apoptosis mediated by CD8+ T cells [6]. More recently, CXCR3+ resident memory T cells (TRM) recruited by CXCL10 were also found to be a source of IFNin vitiligo and vitiligolike lesions induced by nivolumab [9]. All of this evidence suggests that vitiligo and the Koebner phenomenon are characteristic of CSS. Examining SWI/SNF function in vitiligo may improve our understanding of its pathogenesis. Further cases of CSS are needed to confirm the relationship between CSS and vitiligo as a Koebner phenomenon.


Chemical and electrical properties of the surfaces of GaN and GaN/AlGaN heterostructures were systematically investigated by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), capacitance–voltage, and current–voltage measurements. From in situ XPS study, relatively smaller band bending of 0.6 eV was seen at the GaN (2×2) surface grown by radio frequency-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on the metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy GaN template. After exposing the sample surface to air, strong band bending took place at the surface. The surface treatment in NH4OH solution and N2 plasma was found to reduce the surface Fermi level pinning. Surface passivation process of GaN utilizing SiNx film by electron-cyclotron-resonance assisted plasma chemical vapor deposition (ECR–CVD) achieved low interface state density, 2×1011cm−2 eV−1. No pronounced stress remained at the SiNx/GaN interface, which was confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. The present NH4OH/ECR–N2 plasma treatment was also found to be effective in realizing well-ordered ...


Some children learn to read before they go to school. This is a fact that teachers and educators have been aware of for some time, for considerable attention has been given to early reading (1). Less attention has been given to other literacy skills-spelling, for example-that children may develop before they begin formal instruction. We have undertaken a study of the language and literacy skills of one selftaught reader. We are reporting here our findings on the spelling techniques she used and the generalizations she developed. At the time of the study, Kay was six years and five months of age. She is an intent child who loves to learn. Her keen attention and her love of learning may account in part for her ability to read and comprehend materials at a fifth-grade level, as measured by Gray's Standardized Oral Reading Paragraphs. Kay's environment is rich in language experiences. She has always been read to, listened to, and talked to. Singing, poetry, nursery rhymes, and oral family language games are daily fare in her home. She has puzzles and picture lotto games, but her favorite recrea ion at home is to pretend that she is a teacher or a librarian; she sets up three or more dolls in front of her and reads to them. With no instruction Kay was reading independently by the age of five years and six months. At the time she was studied, she had had four months of formal reading instruction in school. Her teacher uses a sight-word approach and pays some attention to beginning consonant sounds. Kay had received no formal instruction in spelling. For those who feel that such knowl-


One of the most important tasks of automatic tool monitoring systems for CNC-lathes is the supervision of a tool's wear. Considering the state of wear and the actual working process (e.g. rough or finish turning) it is possible to exchange a tool (or only the insert) just in time, which offers significant economic advantages. This paper presents a new method to estimate two wear parameters by means of artificial neural networks (multilayer perceptrons or time-delay neural networks). The input parameters of the networks are process-specific parameters (like the feed rate or the depth of cut) and characteristic coefficients extracted from signals measured with a multi-sensor system in the tool holder.


Contracts, in general, can concern many aspects referring to the arrangement of rules among players. An example of such a game can be a contract between an employer and employee or between co-operating parties (coalitions) as well as a set of tender rules [21]. All these phenomena should be treated differently, since they can be different models concerning the rules and mechanisms of specific game rules. Models of contract games rely on functions or established levels of payment and frequently on usefulness functions. For example, in the contract between the employer and the employee one uses the usefulness function in the form of [19]: U(w,a) = C1* a C w * 2 − where: w employee's payment, a effort level, C1 and C2 constants. A well prepared contract makes the payment dependent on obtained effects and keeping to deadlines. The payment for the employer is obviously his profit obtained from employing the employee, minus the costs of employment. Payment functions can have, and as a rule they have, different shapes for employers and employees. The estimation of optimal payments, dependent on productivity, is the employer's principal problem. One certainly should take the level of acceptance into consideration [29], exceeding it makes the undertaking of the job profitable for the employee. The problem becomes more complicated by introducing fuzzy parameters or uncertain knowledge elements, but the position of the employer becomes more flexible at the same time. It results from the fact that the employer does not have to use information of experts and he can depend on the controlled parameter of optimization results that brings the solution closer to real situations or optimally brings up the level of his payment.


As the increase of violent crimes such as robbery, murder, and rape has become a social problem, the government is considering institutionalizing the identification of criminals to prevent crime and to guarantee people`s right to know. Such an atmosphere led to the approval of the revision of `Special Law On the Punishment of Specific violent Crimes` in the National Assembly in April 2010. The revision allows the revelation of the profiles of crime suspects including the pictures of their faces at the investigation stage. However, whether the revision had been effective in preventing crime has not been demonstrated empirically. Moreover, identity revelation is a grave intrusion into privacy and an abuse of human rights such as personal rights and the right to a fair trial, since personal information of criminal suspects would be released to the media prior to the court`s final judgements. Also it violates the principle of presumption of innocence, the principles of due process, the principle of double jeopardy, the principle of prohibition against excessive, the principles of clarity, and the principle of liability.


T HE Rosebud Indian reservation is situated in South Dakota, south of Big White river, and extends from about the middle south line of the state east to the Rosebud lands opened for settlement in 1904. It is bounded on the north by Big White river, on the east by Gregory county (the land opened up for settlement), on the south by Nebraska, and on the west by the Pine Ridge Indian reservation. The soil is sandy Loup Fork Tertiary, Miocene clays or Cretaceous black shales as one proceeds northeast across the reservation from its southwest corner. In the eastern part of this area and in the valley regions the Minnesota and east Nebraska flora prevails; in the medium elevated regions, that of the high plains; and on the high points and in the western part of the reservation, that of the Rocky Mountains. Many Canadian species are also met with. The country in early spring to the middle of the summer is a rose-flower region; hence the name, Rosebud. The Leguminos&e are also prominent flowers, but, though more numerous in species than the Rosacepe, are less conspicuous. In the summer the Leguminosve and the Evening Primrose family vie with each other. The predominating flowers of the fall season are those of the Compositae. The grass family is represented by numerous species, which are themselves very variable. The trees are usually low and spreading, and are usually found only along the streams. The following list of identified plants are the result of the author's observations during the spring, summer and fall of 1904. The work was carried on as time would permit, and, consequently, contains only a small part of the plants of the region. The books used in identifying the plants were Wood's "Eastern Botany," Bessey's "Botany for High Schools and Colleges," Gray's " Lessons and Manual of Botany," and Coulter's " Manual of Rocky Mountain Botany." The date in parentheses is that on which the first bloom of that respective plant appeared. Ranunculaceae: Anemone carolinana Walt. Numerous.


The mid-IR (10 μm) temperature scale adopted in the article was inadvertently derived from a calibration made with the camera nearly saturated. It provided a temperature input versus reading temperature ratio of about 36. New calibrations were repeated several times in the following campaigns, one year later, showing a temperature input versus reading temperature ratio of 2. Therefore the published mid-IR burst time profile and derived fluxes should be divided by a factor of 18.


Supplementary data tml http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/suppl/2013/05/20/rspb.2013.0711.DC1.h "Data Supplement" References http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1763/20130711.full.html#ref-list-1 This article cites 22 articles, 6 of which can be accessed free This article is free to access Subject collections (1456 articles) evolution  • (1337 articles) ecology  • (959 articles) behaviour  • Articles on similar topics can be found in the following collections


Decades later, Rosa* still remembers the feeling of terror. During Guatemala's armed conflict, the police used to knock on doors in her Caribbean coastal town to tell people to turn out the lights,...


The . genesis • ;of homosexuality is one of the most interesting problems-in psycho-analysis. The homosexual element is preserrMin ••• some form or otherin. all psycho-neurotics and it -forms a dominant trait'in some -psycho'ses^ A gooddeal of discussion has centered round \ythe problem whether homosexuality is a primary trait and whether the active dr.the passive form is the more primitive one. The relationship of homosexuality to the oedipus complex and its connection with analeroticism and castration complex have not been thoroughly elucidated as" yet. Then again the difference between male and female homosexuality requires a.careful study. Our knowledge of homosexuality is far from complete, I here venture to lay down my experience as gained from analyses of psychoneurotics, psycbotics and .a few out and out homosexuals of ,the passive and, active type. My subjects were mostly Indians of different nationalities. There were a few Europeans and Eurasians. . . . .


Mouse hepatic cells appear in thin sections as polygons with six or more sides. The plasma membrane covering these sides may contact either bile canaliculi, the narrow intercellular space, the space of Disse or extensions of the space of Disse between adjacent cells. The plasma membrane covering microvilli in bile canaliculi and the space of Disse is thicker than that in contact with the narrow intercellular space. Bile canaliculi, which contact about 6% of the perimeter of each cell, are each separated by tight junctions from the narrow intercellular space. This space contacts more than one-half the perimeter of each cell and is about 220 A in width. It is continuous around the occasional studlike junctions which occur, but is interrupted at frequent intervals by circumscribed tight junctions, and occasionally by desmosomes. The narrow intercellular space is in free communication through the space of Disse with the plasma space. An interstitial fluid space, separate from the plasma space, does not occur in the liver lobule. Protein molecules from plasma enter hepatic cells in both coated and pinocytotic vesicles. These vesicles are derived from invaginations of the plasma membrane that borders the narrow intercellular space and the spaces between microvilli in the space of Disse. Pinocytotic vesicles may also incorporate fat droplets into hepatic cells.


In laminar flow between flat plates for parallel, radial inward, and in some circumstances radial outward flow, the flow velocity increases as the density falls. If the bearing is long enough, and the ambient pressure low enough, the film will 'choke', i.e. the pressure gradient at exit becomes infinite. An increase in the pressure at entry to the film then results in an exit plane pressure greater than ambient. The conditions for the above flows to choke are examined, and the effect on the performance of a simple, orifice-compensated, parallel-flow bearing element is described. It is found that load capacity is enhanced, but optimum stiffness reduced, when compared with an inertialess flow prediction.


The transition of search engine users' intents has been studied for a long time. The knowledge of intent transition, once discovered, can yield a better understanding of how different topics are related and be used in many applications, such as building recommender systems, ranking and etc. In this paper, we study the problem of finding the transition probabilities of digital library users' intents among different topics. We use the click-through data from CiteSeerX and extract the click chains. Each document in the click chain is represented by a topical vector generated by LDA models. We then model the task of finding the topical transition probabilities as a multiple output linear regression problem, in which the input and output are two consecutive topical vectors in the click chain and the elements in the weight matrix correspond to the transition probabilities. Given the constraints of our task, we propose a new algorithm based on the exponentiated gradient. Our algorithm provides a good interpretability as well as a small sum-of-squares error comparable to existing regression methods. We are particular interested in the off-diagonal elements of the learned weight matrix since they represent the transition probabilities of different topics. The authors' interpretation of these transitions are given at the end of the paper.


Under the action of cyclic load, fatigue fracture failure often occurs in many engineering structures during their services. Fatigue cracks in engineering structures begin to propagate under cyclic loading, and eventually lead to the failure of engineering structures. The study of fatigue crack is of great significance for evaluating the service life of engineering structures under cyclic loading. The prediction of fatigue crack growth life and path is the key problem of fatigue crack research. In this paper, the numerical simulation of fatigue crack growth of single side notched specimen is carried out by using the extended finite element method. According to the calculated stress intensity factor and the generalized Paris formula, the fatigue crack growth rate of single side notched specimen is obtained and the fatigue crack growth life is predicted. The results show that this method can effectively predict the fatigue crack growth life.


Abstracts English: This paper describes how a major university has marshalled its resources to take advantage of new and emerging electronic technologies to provide high‐quality learning environments for its students. The organizational structure and staff of several resource units (for example, the Center for Academic Computing, Education Technology Services and Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching) will be discussed briefly along with their respective objectives. Sample projects will also be presented. Further information is available at World Wide Web‐sites for which addresses (URLs) will be provided.


The invention provides micronized encapsulated cell therapy devices that are capable of delivering a biologically active molecule to the eye. Also provided are methods of using the same to deliver biologically active molecules to the eye and to treat ophthalmic disorders in patients suffering there from.


Fertilizer is an ingredient that contains one or more nutrients or nutrients for plants to support the growth and development of plants. Oil palm plantations produce large profits so that many forests and old plantations are converted into oil palm plantations. To produce the best palm oil production, it is recommended that fertilizers have the quality and quantity precisely and quickly so that the target in the development of oil palm can be achieved maximally in its growth process. Many methods can be used to solve problems in the scientific field, one of the methods SPK. Researchers used the MAUT (Multy-Attribute Utility Theory) method in solving the problem of selecting the best fertilizer on oil palm plants based on several criteria that were set. Visual Basic 2010 application is the software used in this study. It is hoped that this research can recommend the best fertilizer used on plantations to maintain the quality of oil palm plants. Keywords : SPK, MAUT, Visual Basic 2010, MADM, Microsoft Access


Field, pot culture and laboratory experiments were carried out to study the effect of foliar spraying of silicic and salicylic acids against major pests of rice through inducing resistance, and their natural enemies like spiders and mirids. In the field experiment, leaf feeders and sucking insects were found significantly reduced with basal application of rice husk ash 500 kg/ha + silica solubilizing bacteria (SSB) @ 2 kg/ha with foliar spraying of silicic acid 0.5%. This was followed by basal application of calcium silicate 50 kg/ha with foliar application of silicic acid 0.5%. Similarly, significantly less stem borer incidence was observed with basal application of rice husk ash 500 kg/ha + SSB 2 kg/ha with foliar spraying of silicic acid 0.5%. Spiders and mirids were significantly less with basal application of calcium silicate 50 kg/ha along with foliar application of silicic acid 0.5%. In short, significantly reduced damage by the leaf folder, stem borer and gall midge besides reduction in the population of brown plant hopper (BPH), spiny beetle, ear head bug and increased natural enemies were observed with basal application of rice husk ash 500 kg/ha + SSB 2kg/ha and foliar spraying of silicic acid 0.5%. Basal application of calcium silicate 50 kg/ha with foliar application of silicic acid 0.5% was the next best. Correlations with inferences on the biology of BPH, leaf folder and biophysical factors (silicified cells and leaf erectness and biochemical factors viz., peroxidase content and silica content) corroborated their efficacy.


To increase the nucleate boiling efficiency, many nucleate boiling experiments have been conducted and could get brilliant and challengeable results. A consensus was that CHF and heat transfer were affected by a modified heating surface which change the micro roughness, thermophysical properties of heating surface, or the wettability. Of the many parameters, the wettability study is regarded as the most powerful factor. For finding the optimized condition at the nucleate boiling (high heat transfer and high CHF), we design the special heaters to examine how two materials, which have different wettabilities, affect the boiling phenomena. The special heaters have several types of hydrophobic patterns which have the precise size because they were made by MEMS techniques on the silicon oxide surface. In the experiments with patterned surface, hydrophobic dots lead to an early bubble inception and induce the better heat transfer. These experiments are compared with classic and recent models for bubble inception. The all experiments are conducted under the saturated pool boiling condition with distilled water at 1 atm pressure. The peculiar Teflon (AF1600) is used as the hydrophobic material. The hydrophilic part is performed by silicon oxide through the furnace procedure. The experiments using the micro-sized patterns and milli-sized patterns are performed, and the results are compared with the reference surface. These mixed-wettability studies are expected to induce the development of the nucleate boiling condition.Copyright © 2010 by ASME


Demonstrations of cognitive competence in preschool children and infants played an important role in the waning influence of Piagetian theory and the rise of nativism. Arguments and data favoring modularity have further buttressed the case for nativism. This article reviews evidence concerning early competence and modularity in the spatial and quantitative domains, as well as the role of experience in development. This evidence provides little reason to support nativist claims in either domain.